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Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Mark Your Calendars - UVTAGG Meeting!

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group - UVTAGG (Formerly the Utah Valley PAF Users Group - UVPAFUG) will be on Saturday, 10 Jan 2015, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. Information about the Group, meeting location, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on their website http://uvtagg.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvtagg.org . On the blog you can subscribe to receive the press releases via email when they are posted a week before the meetings.

The main presentation this month at UVTAGG is by Ben Baker on FAMILYSEARCH INSIDER TIPS AND TRICKS. There are many powerful tools available on FamilySearch.org that are not well-documented in manuals nor easily discovered in the products themselves. This presentation will help you learn some tips and tricks from a FamilySearch engineer of how to be more productive in using the resources on FamilySearch.org. Ben Baker has been a senior software engineer at FamilySearch for the past 5 years. His computer education is from BYU and he currently leads an engineering team working on Family Tree. He has also worked with digital image processing of historical documents. He enjoys helping others do Family History more effectively and tries to do his own. His background information and a list of some of his previous presentations is online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/familysearchbenbaker .

After the main presentation the following classes are scheduled; check the meetings page at http://uvtagg.org/ for last minute changes or additions.

Q&A: FamilySearch Insider Tips and Tricks, by Ben Baker

Using LDS Membership Records Worldwide: A Gold-Mine of Information, by Liz Snow

Ask An Expert (Personal Help), by Don Engstrom and Finn Hansen

Video of the last main presentation (Nov 2014): Adding a Visual Dimension to Your Research, by Peg Ivanyo

MAC Help, by Ron Snowden

Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay

Legacy: Searching, Tagging and Focus Groups, by Dean Bennett

RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell.

As you can see, there is something for everyone no matter what their level of family history expertise, and this includes youth, those just getting interested in genealogy, and Ward FH Consultants. All meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public, whether members of the Group or not. The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually about 100 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays, most of whom are Family History Consultants. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Laurie Castillo, 1st VP; Don Snow, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, Newsletter Editor; Don Engstrom and Rayanne Melick, Membership and Finances; Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, DVD Library; and Chris Stevenson, Webmaster. Several of these will be at the meeting to answer questions, help with membership, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter TAGGology, and check out and sell to members of the Group DVDs of past presentations and classes. The Group is in need of a Secretary, so if you might be interested, contact President Gerhard Ruf. Many members don't live close enough to participate in the monthly meetings, but pay the $10 per year online dues to belong so they can receive the monthly newsletter via email and purchase the inexpensive DVDs of the presentations and classes. Gift memberships make great presents for family history-minded relatives, friends, and Family History Consultants, and membership is on a calendar year basis, so it is time for members to renew. See more information about the presentations, classes, class notes, and to join the Group on the websites above. You can also contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvtagg.org(801-225-6106), or 1st VP Laurie Castillo at laurie@everythingisrelative.net , or 2nd VP Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu .

NOTE: The UVTAGG meeting for Feb 2015 will be on the third Saturday (21 Feb 2015) due to conflicts with RootsTech 2015 in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on the second Saturday.